Fruit-jar opener



J. H. BUHCK.

FRUIT JAR OPENER.

APPLICATIOMILED JUNE 24. m9.

Patented Feb. 21, 1922.

ver."

PATENT JOHN E. BURCK, 0F. ALBANY, NEW YORK.

FRUIT-JAR OPENER.

Specicatien of Letters Patent. Patented Feb. 21, 1922.

Applicationiled .Tune 24, 1919, Y Serial No. 306,409.

To all 'whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, JoHN H. BURGK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Albany, in the county of Albany and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fruit-J ar Openers, of which the following is a specification.

Reference maybe had to the accompanying drawings, and the reference characters marked thereon, whichform a part of this specification. Similar characters refer to similar parts in the several figures therein.

This invention relates to means for facilitating the removal of the cover from the bodyfof a common fruit-jar which is ordinarily sealed by a rubber gasket.

Much difliculty is encountered in removing the covers of such jars by reason of the partial vacuum formed within the jar due to the sealing of the jar while its contents are in a heated condition, and the subsequent cooling of the contents. j

This diiiculty is accentuated by the methods commonly employed in canning fruits and vegetables of boiling the filled covered jars which tends to vulcanize the rubber' gasket to the oppositely disposed surfaces of the mouth of the jar and of the cover.

In opening fruit-jars of this kind, it is customary to force the pointed end of a knife, fork or the like into the rubber-filled joint between the top and body of the jar which is not only diflicult in many instances, but is also dangerous to the person opening the jar due to the tendency of the inserted point to slip and injure the hand which is holding the jar.

The principal object of the present invention is to facilitate prying the cover from the body of such a jar without danger' of injury to the erson opening the jar.

Other objects will appear in connection with the following description.

Fig. l of the drawings is a view in side elevation of the upper portion of a covered fruit-jar showing my opener applied thereto, and illustrating by dotted lines the movement of the pry of the opener and the resultant opening movement of the jar-cover.

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation of the bar which supports the pry and the pry-l resisting member.

Fig. 3 is a View in side elevation of the pry apart from the bar.

Fig. a is an edge view of the same.

Ifig. 5 is a view in perspective of the pryresisting member. Y

Fig. 6 is a view in side elevation of a modified form of my opener.

Referring to the drawings wherein the invention is shown in preferred form, l represents the body of an ordinary fruit-j ar, 2 the removable top of the jar, and 3 the rubbergasket which seals the joint between the top and body of the jar.

I have shown a type of jar having the usual wire clamping-wire 4, and lockingwlre 5. A j j My improved jar-opener comprises a bar, 6, a pry, 7, and a pry-resisting member, 8. As shown in Fig. l, the pry comprises a lever pivoted at 9, upon a downwardly offset end, l0, of the bar, 6.

The lower end of the lever, 7, is inwardly offset at l1 and horizontally flattened, terminating in the form of a knife-edge to enter the rubber-sealed joint between the top and 'the body of the jar.

The upper end, l2, of the lever, 7, forms an operating-handle.

The pry-resisting member, 8, has its upper end in the form of a slide, 14C, capable of adjustment longitudinally of the bar, 6, and having its lower end adapted to engage the covered jar on the side opposite that engaged by the pry-end, l1.

The pry-resisting member, 8, may be made to engage any convenient portion of the side of the covered jar opposite that engaged by the pry-end, 1l.

I prefer however, to form the pry-resisting member, 8, with a transverse ridge, 13, adapted to engage the rubber-sealed joint of the covered ar on the side opposite that engaged by the pry-end, l1.

In operating the device, the opener is applied to the upper portion of the jar with the wedge-end, l1, withdrawn outwardly as far as possible and placedV in engagement with the rubber-sealed joint on one side of the covered jar, and the pry-resisting member, 8, is then slid inwardly along the bar, 6, until its ridge, 13, engages the rubbersealedjoint between the top and the body of the jar on the side opposite that engaged by the wedge-end, 11.

Y The end of the bar having the pry-resisting member, 8, is then held by one hand while with the other hand the operator forces the handle-end of thepry-lever, Loutwardly causing the Wedge-end, 1l, of said lever to be'iorced inwardly and then upwardly into the rubber-iilled joint` between the top and the body of the jar, unsealing and then lifting the edge oic the cover on that side of the jar as indicated by dotted lines in F ig. 1.- v

In the opening operation, the wedge-end,

ll, oi the pry-lever lirst acts as a wedge, andv then as a lever, its leverage being obtained by its engagement with the neclr of the jar which serves as a fulci'um for the lever.

VThe pry-resisting' member, 8, is preterably made adjustable longitudinallyl of the bar, V(3, to 'adapt the opener foi' jars of dif- Y ferent sizes.

Y lIn Fig. 6 I have shown a modified form ot my improved jar-opener in which theV pry-resisting member, 8, is foi-ined by' an integral downwardly extended end of the bar', 6a, and the pry-lever, 7a, is pivotally Y mounted at 9, upon a slide, 14a, whereby the pry-lever can be adjusted toward and from the 'pry-resistingV member, 8a.

' ln this form of the invention, the prylever terminates; at its lower end in a pry-end,

'bent to the desired fol'in.

Y set my Vhand this ll, and at its upper end'in'an operating lVhat Ifclaimasnew and desire to secure by* Letters Patentise'- Y p n A' fruit-Jar-opener comprising a bar having means for engaging lthe opposite sides of a covered jai", one of said means compris-f ing a pry pivot'ed Vupon 'thebarhaving one end offset horizontally flattened andwe'dgeshaped to enter between the top andY body of the jar, and the` other` end in the form Vof an operating handle, one-of said means be-V ing capable of adjustment longitudinally ci. the bar. j

ln testimony whereof, IV have hereunto 14th day of June,`l919. Y JOHN vH.. BURCK 

